AD/Res/Retired/Med Discharged/Dependents/Tricare & Infamous VA

LaDonna,

So very glad to hear from you! I hope and pray you never have any problems with tricare or your treatments and such. I certainly do not want to jinx you.

Since your knowledge is of tricare, I'll ask those questions first.
Through the process of diagnosis and treatment, did you have to use mil medical facilities (hosp, docs, etc.) or did you get to use civilians? If you had to use any mil medical, how was that experience? How was the timing for getting appts and treatment? Were there any delays? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I so greatly appreciate it. I am hoping that the mods decide to give us our own forum because our experiences with getting and requesting treatment can vastly differ from the others.

If you know of anyone else who is in our category (mil/retired/dependent/tricare/VA) please ask them to post here.

Thanks so much.

Sally,

Thank you for responding! What has been your experience with the VA? Anything you feel comfortable sharing would be greatly appreciated. I am really concerned about getting the proper care in a timely manner. I had to deal with a horrible witch of a woman at the VA who processes referrals. She wanted to stick my on the back-burner and get to my referral when she felt like it. My wonderful regular doctor that I used when I still had tricare, knew that it was time for my 6 month mammo/us so he just sent the referral in without contacting me (very nice). Unbeknownst to him, I was having some serious breast issues and had just gone to the VA for help the week before. Anyway, my VA doctor sent in a referral for me to have a mammo/us for my "serious breast issues". On Monday, I got a call from the scheduling dept of the hosp that was going to do my mammo/us. I thought it was generated from the VA referral. I made the appt for Friday (tomorrow). The next day, I get a call from the witch at the VA telling me I had to cancel my appt for the mammo/us or pay for it myself because she wasn't going to get to processing my referral for awhile because she had 90 others to do before mine and she gets in at least 90 a day. OMG! I was so pissed. She was horrible. After some yelling, she finally decided to do her job. But, we really shouldn't have to be treated so disrespectfully. So, I'm concerned about how the process will work at the appt tomorrow and after.

Whatever you are willing to share, I will be very grateful and thankful.

Thank you.

Yes, it is helpful. However, I'm not having good experience with the VA. I had my diagnostic mammo/us but neither the techs nor the radiologist would listen to my concerns. I have the bee sting, stabbing pain in breast through to armpit on left breast. I have pain in 3 spots in armpit area. I have what I think is a swollen lymph node at top of breast bone and just below collar bone on left side. They refused to check the painful areas on my breast but agreed to check my armpit with ultrasound. My mammo came back clear. The ultrasound did not find the mass they were rechecking from previous 3 mammo/us's. However, they did find a new mass in the area that they said they would not check. My armpit showed swollen lymph node 1.5 cm. This evening, I found a lump in the same area as the new mass. It is painful. When I touch it, I get a pain that radiates through me to my back/shoulder blade area. Yesterday, I got a call from my VA doctor to discuss the mammo/us findings. He said he could refer me to a general surgeon. I asked him to refer me to a breast specialist or a VA breast clinic. He told me that he is not allowed to make those types of referrals and best he could do was the general surgeon and did I want that. I told him that if that is his only option that makes it my only option so, yes, give me the referral. I told him that I knew that there was a VA breast clinic in Tampa and I think Jacksonville and I am willing to go the distance to get specialized care. He still said no, that he does not have authorization to make such referrals. I'm very upset by what I feel is a lack of care. We only have a VA clinic here. No breast specialists in this town anywhere - not even civilian. So, now I'm waiting for the referral to the surgeon and hoping he will do the right thing for me but really, I have ZERO confidence in the VA. By the way, did you know that there is congressional effort to begin studying a link between breast cancer and women who served in OIF/OEF in the desert? Apparently, there is a disproportionate number of us military females who were deployed there who are being diagnosed with breast cancer. This really is concerning for me because I found a paper in my medical record stating that while deployed over there, I was exposed to unknown toxic chemicals. Wow! That blew me away. No one ever told me that. I just found it when I was copying my medical record for the VA.

VA clinic has a patient advocate??? I will google that in the next few minutes. Do you know if your breast clinic takes walk-ins or do I have to have a referral? Tampa is a long way but I'm desperate for answers. These people have not been good to me so far. Well, except for my doctor's nurse. She has been wonderful but she is only a nurse and can not write referrals.

Very sorry Galsal, I meant to email you earlier today. I received a call from the VA general surgeon's office this morning just as I was picking up the phone to call the breast clinic in tampa and the patient advocate. They made me an appointment for tomorrow morning. If he can find the lumps and lymph nodes, he will biopsy in the office. If not, they will schedule the biopsy. The scheduler said that the surgeon had an order this morning that he was to get me in this week. So, they are working me into their schedule at 10:30am. I was so shocked that they all acted so quickly that I couldn't think to do anything else today. I will keep you posted on what happens tomorrow. I'm still in shock. Thank you for all your help and thank you for checking in on me.

Appointment was disappointing. Here's the run down: took my blood pressure: 154/90 HOLY CRAP! Mine is normally, 100/60. Clearly there is something wrong but no they told me that's a normal BP. Surgeon does breast exam. Can't feel the lumps or find the lymph node. No biopsy of any kind. But he would try to aspirated the lump using an ultra sound as guide but would not send it off for pathology would just through it away. I don't like that idea so did not do it. He told me that the VA won't allow MRI for breast density (I'm 75% density). I asked to get referral to VA breast clinic in Tampa. He said he didn't know there was such a thing and couldn't refer to it because he doesn't know how. He said he would check on that to call back every Friday to see if they have figured out how to do a referal to there. He said breast cancer doesn't hurt so take Motrin. The nipple did not discharge blood during breast exam so nothing he can do about that. It did discharge just not blood. He said probably from a papilloma. He said cancer grows very slow so no big deal to wait and watch another 6 months since he doesn't think it's cancer anyway. Useless. Just useless. I HATE THE VA. So upset I just left. Forgot about seeing pt advocate. Now I'm going to have to go back. Aweful. Just aweful. I wish I would have said, if your penis hurt, would you settle for 6 month watch and wait??? I've had so much smoke blown up my ass that it coming out my ears.

Thank you also to specialk, I didn't mean to ignore you. I tried to answer back to you earlier but it's difficult from my phone. I have to say that I'm starting to feel that there is a bit of a prejudice against women vets here in Pcola. When I first went to establish myself at the VA last year, the WOMAN processing me was condescending about my military service AND refused to believe that I had ever been in the desert (combat zone) even when I showed her my DD-214 which specifically states COMBAT VETERAN.What is with these people? Anyway, thanks again to both of you.